Short course swimmers earn long list of honors

By NANCY MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001

Florida's short course swimming season came to a thrilling end this month in the Junior Olympic Championships in Gainesville.

Over 80 local swimmers 14 years old and younger competed in the three-day meet, with high-point awards, personal bests and records achieved.

Ten swimmers were recognized for their top-10 overall high-point finish in their respective divisions. They were Jose Crescimbeni of the Clearwater Aquatic Team with a No. 1 performance in 10-and-under, Megan Roman of St. Pete Aquatics in 10-and-under (third), Chelsea Nauta of the Greater Tampa Swim Association in 11-12 (third), CAT's Jill Sears in the class for 10-year-olds (ninth) and James Taddeo in 10 (ninth), WFLA's Teresa Tessier in 13-14 (ninth) and Clay Bullock in 11-12 (fifth), and SPA's Tracy Rorer in 10 (sixth), Stase Michota in 11-12 (10th) and Russell Snyder in 11-12 (seventh).

"This was my first trip to JOs," Snyder said. "After the first day, I was astounded by what I had done."

What the 12-year-old did was win the 50- and 200-yard breaststroke events. That, plus a seventh in the 200-yard individual medley and eighths in the 400 IM and 1,000-yard freestyle combined for Snyder's seventh-place high-point placement.

"I've competed for about six years, including two with St. Pete Aquatics," Snyder said. "Now that we're getting into the long course season, I hope to improve all my times, as well as improve all my strokes and win some 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke events."

Rorer won the girls 10-and-under 100-yard breaststroke and teamed with Romano, Krauss and Brown to take first in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a record time of 1:54.97.

Competing among about 25 individuals in each event, those with the top eight times in preliminary swims advanced to the championship final. Reaching final eight status among the girls were Romano, Sears, Rorer and Kaitlin Frehling in the 10 division; Nauta, Michota, Jennifer Frey, Claire Thompson, Deidre Novotny and Jaime Milo in 11-12; Teresa Tessier, Kali Goodwin, Caitlin Warner, Colleen Bauza, Jie Deng and Erin Hill in 13-14.

Boys qualifying for the championship in a variety of events included Crescimbeni, Taddeo, Cameron Martin and Sgrignoli in 10; Andrew Blazuk, Bullock, Russell Snyder, Adam Corbin, Keith Coghlan and Kevin Nardozzi in 11-12; and Adam Moody and Nick Vilaret in 13-14.

Other record-setters included Nauta in the girls 11-12 200-yard freestyle and Bullock in the boys 11-12 200-yard backstroke and 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle. Bullock's 2:02 time in the backstroke established a national age group mark.

Rounding out the event winners were Nauta (100 and 200 backstroke), Crescimbeni (50 free, 50 and 100 back, 50 and 100 butterfly), Taddeo (100 back) and CAT 10-and-under boys Crescimbeni, Sgrignoli, Taddeo and Jordan Hawkins (200 medley relay).

ALL-STAR SWIMMING: Area swimmers qualifying for next weekend's All-Star Meet between Florida Swim on the West Coast and Florida Gold on the East Coast include Crescimbeni, Taddeo and Martin from CAT; Tessier, Bullock and Blazuk from WFLA; and Rorer, Romano, Michota, Katie Brown, Kelsey Krauss, Moody and Nardozzi from SPA. They will compete for Florida Swim.

GIRLS GYMNASTICS: The Tampa Bay Turners won the Level 7 competition in the LaFleur's of Tampa Invite this month, was second in Open and Level 8 and fourth in Level 9. Kaylene Sattano in Level 9 and Lindsay Weber in Level 7 scored their second consecutive all-around victories. Medalist All-Star won the Level 5 competition in the Gasparilla Invitational this month with Dalila Lemezan finishing second all-around and Jordan Jankovic sixth. Other top-five all-around awards went to Melissa Perkins and Amanda Crane in Level 7, Ryann Matthews in Level 8 and Kimberly and Tina Jacob in Level 9. In last weekend's Third AAU Qualifier in Venice, Kristina Lee won the modified optional competition for 11-12 year olds.

BOYS GYMNASTICS: The Medalist boys were third overall in Class 6 of the Gasparilla Invitational. Kevan Cooke was second on pommel horse and rings.

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